Catching Up

We've had lots of excitement around here in the last couple of weeks, including:

Pawl coming to visit - he brought his bike, so we loaded up all the kiddos and pedaled down (literally) to the farmer's market. Pawl had to help me and Mat get back up the last hill. I won at Catan, by the way!

Patrick coming home from Sunday School and telling me that he had learned a "drinking song." I had a talk with his teacher this week and let her know I thought he was a little young to be learning drinking songs.

I attended a women's retreat last weekend, and left Mat at the helm with a mess in the yard, a mess in the house, and three little kids. I came home 36 hours later to a clean house, cleaned up yard, and happy kids.

For Mat's birthday, our friends offered to keep our kids overnight, so I took Mat camping (see pictures below).

Mathew is starting to talk a little, both saying words (uh-oh is his favorite) and signing. He could learn to walk if he wanted to, but he's really good at crawling and that's more expedient for now.

Peter is reading really well, and getting the hang of writing. He wrote a birthday card for Mat all on his own. By far, his favorite thing to do is play in one of the many piles of dirt in the yard.

Speaking of the yard, we have little shoots of grass growing on the side, vegetables planted wherever I dare, corn and blueberries planted in the rain garden, and an herb garden. We're turning half of our front yard into a garden too. We had pizza made with freshly-picked spinach and basil today - Mmmmm!

Enjoy the pictures!

Mat's Birthday Cake

Patrick decorated the cake with sprinkles, and Peter put on the candles. By request, it was "carrot mud cake."

Mathew is practicing for next week!

Camping (without kids)

After we dropped off the kids, we headed out to Belfair State Park on Hood Canal, and began our exciting camping weekend with a leisurely walk on the beach and a nap!

These are salmon berries growing wild along the creek- yummy!

After our nap, we went for a hike in Tahuya State Forest. All of the wild, native rhodedendrons are in bloom.

We saw lots of these little toads along the path and swimming in the mud puddles.

Lucy was hot and tired, so I guess a mud bath was a good idea.

Our sleeping accomodations - in the back of the minivan. On an air mattress. With sheets and pillows. I think we're getting old.

Mat's gourmet birthday dinner...

We got up LATE! on Saturday morning, had a big fire-cooked breakfast, and then went for a paddle on Hood Canal and up Union River. We put the boat in a little creek right by our campsite at high tide and floated it out to the main water. In the river, we saw a sturgeon - a lazy, 6-foot-long fish just hanging out right under our boat. We also saw some neat birds and lots of oyster beds.

The tide was going out, so we ended up jumping some logs on our way out of the river.

More Yard Work

These little spinach-snitchers completely defoliated three of the plants! What was I supposed to do, scold them for eating spinach!?!?

Erica's Visit

Well, silliness was bound to happen sooner or later. These are thai eggplants that we found while we were exploring the local asian market. (We cooked and ate them!)

On Friday, we braved the wet weather and went to the Tacoma Museum of Glass, then went next door to Union Station for lunch. They are both next to the harbor and the railroad tracks, so we got to watch the trains and boats as an added bonus.

Peter's haircut

Notice how far that lower lip is sticking out - he was NOT happy about getting his mohawk cut off!

Our "new" van, and a few moments of sunshine.

The maple tree is making lots of helicopters for the boys to play with.

News and Such

Well, we happily passed a great milestone in parenthood this week with the purchase of a used minivan. And we're very excited about it!

Peter's mohawk got cut off tonight, and he shed many tears about it. He really enjoyed all the extra attention he got from it all week. I'm glad to not have to fix his hair every morning.

Patrick came up to me today to inform me that he was tucking his shirt into his pants. "Mommy, you may NOT play with my tummy!" He told me several times an was quite insistent! I wonder where he's heard that before?

And perhaps best of all, Mathew has started to get the idea of asking for what he wants rather than using an ear-piercing scream. What a relief!

Peter's New 'Do

Pete says "This kinda looks like Uncle Pawl!"

Moon Gazing

Just A Swingin'

We had a good time at the playground with our friends on Wednesday.